Fuel costs affecting motor coach customers, firms

With the price of gasoline still well above $1.50 per gallon, some area motor coach and shuttle transport companies are having to increase their prices.

Jeanne Lynch is the owner of A-OK Shuttle and Tours in Branson, which provides group and individual transportation with several types of vehicles. She said the higher prices for fuel are having a negative effect on her business.

"We've had to raise some of our prices, and we're not making any money," Lynch said.

For example, Lynch said, A-OK customers used to pay $8 per person round trip for transportation within the city of Branson, but now, those customers are charged $10 per round trip. She said the company also provides transportation to and from the Springfield-Branson Regional Airport, and the fees for that service are higher now, before 8 a.m. and after 8 p.m.

Lynch said the airport transportation fee was increased only during those times because fewer people need that service in the early and late hours.

For large groups, Lynch said motor coach fees have increased from $535 to $550 per day, and area tour fees have grown from $13 to $15 per person.

"We haven't raised (prices) that much. We just raised certain segments where we were way too low anyway," she said.

Lynch is not alone in having to increase prices.

Hutch Schultz is the business development manager for Branson Grayline, a full-service destination company that offers shuttle service, airport transit and charter (services) for groups and individuals. He said the company also has raised some fees to make up for the increased cost of fuel, because the added expense primarily affected the company's operating costs.

"For the first part of the season, we were absorbing the increased fuel costs. Recently, we've had to impose a temporary fuel surcharge of 10 percent on our airport transfer service," Schultz said.

The surcharge means that Branson Grayline customers who need transportation to and from the airport are paying $22, rather than $20.

Shultz said although the airport transit surcharge is the only price increase Branson Grayline has directly passed to customers, it's not the only effect of higher gas prices that the company has seen.

Branson Grayline uses its own 15-passenger vans and 28-passenger mini-coaches, but it leases large motor coaches from other companies when necessary.

Schultz said the companies that lease the large motor coaches to Grayline are imposing fuel surcharges of their own, and that surcharge is figured into some traveling groups' cost.

"Fortunately, for things like our escorted tours that are booked months in advance, we've locked in contract rates without additional fuel charges," he said.

Travelways, located in Ozark, is a motor coach charter company that owns Sunnyland and Tiger Air Express motor coaches, which they lease to tour operators.

Travelways manager Bobby Hill said lease costs vary depending on the number of miles and what the motor coaches will be used for. However, he said, the cost of fuel is included in leasing fees, and Travelways had to implement a $20 fuel surcharge to make up for added costs during its fiscal year that ended June 30.

"When our budgets were set for (last) fiscal year, that was done back around February and March of 1999. Back then, fuel prices were less than $1 a gallon, they were about 82 cents a gallon," Hill said. "When we decided to set the fuel cost to go into our budget, we figured it might go up to $1, so our whole budget was based on $1 per gallon."

Hill said a small price increase was included in Travelways' new fiscal year, which began July1, to prevent the company from having to impose a fuel surcharge even if gas prices stay high or continue to rise.

Lynch said she's noticed fewer travelers lately who need transportation from one point to another in Branson, or to and from the airport, which is A-OK Shuttle & Tours' primary type of business. She said she's had to lay off some employees and cut the hours of the 15 who remain, in order to deal with the decrease in customers, coupled with the higher fuel costs.

Schultz said there are also fewer motor coach travelers these days, but he said statistics have shown them to be decreasing for some time, the higher cost of fuel aside.

"Motorcoach business in Branson peaked in 1993 with 12.6 percent of visitors to Branson arriving by motorcoach. Since 1995, there has been a steady decline in motor coach traffic. That trend stabilized in 1998 and 1999 with 6.9 percent of Branson visitors traveling by motor coach," Shultz said.

He said he expects the rate for this year to be at or above the 98-99 percentage for motor coach travel, and he said he doesn't think it will go lower because of the higher fuel costs.

Both Schultz and Hill said the impact of higher fuel costs on motor coach travelers won't likely be significant, because surcharges can be divided among the large groups, making the per-person increase fairly small.

Hill said customers were pretty understanding when they had to pay the surcharge imposed by Travelways, since they're dealing with the same higher prices at the pumps.

Lynch agreed, and said her customers haven't complained about the increased fees, but she said if gas prices go up much higher, she won't have any choice but to increase some of her fees again.